I've heard ICE described as a militia of the unemployed mobilized to declare war on the working class

To be fair, there are plenty other jobs thst could be cut, like CEO of Amazon

This is true, but the scale goes both ways. For every dollar of public education you get $1+X out. This has been true for the vast majority of public education programs for at least the past half century. So public education is literally a good investment. I’ve never gone looking for data on ICE, but I’d bet good money that for every dollar in there’s a net loss.

There are around 22k ICE agents.

They increased payroll by 120% in the last year alone. This does not include private contracts for construction and maintenance of new detainment facilities, coming out of the $45B earmarked by Congress last year.

There are around 4m teachers in the US. To raise them all from 55k to the 100k that ICE agents make (ignoring the hiring bonus) would cost 180b/yr.

$45B -> $180B is not two orders of magnitude.

if we had the money to pay ICE agents 100k+bonuses, then we should have just paid the teachers that much instead

Pete Hegseth is currently asking Congress for an extra $200B in Pentagon spending, after increasing their budget $71B this year already.

We clearly don't have a problem with finding more money.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, teachers aren't paid from the federal budget. I believe that the vast majority of public school funding, including teacher salaries, come from local taxes. In fact, I believe school funding is paid mostly from local property taxes. There isn't one, national public school system that's centrally funded. It's decentralized and can vary significantly from one district to another.

Yeah, this is like the '1 billion is enough for to give everyone a million' - an unfortunate bit of innumeracy. Directions good, but this is still misleading at best.

Thank you for the lucid feedback. Putting the numbers into proper framing is a good thing. Fuck ICE, the gestapo of this terrible president.

This is pretty much the same answer I give when people overrract about CEO pay. Sure they are overpaid dicks but their paycheck will often not amount to much when divided among all the employees.

I have a friend in Kentucky. Lovely lady. We've known each other about twenty years now. Long time ago she was a waitress earning decent money but wanted to be a teacher. It was going to be a financial hit (the fuck?) but I encouraged her to follow her dream.

Long story short she lasted two years before being crushed by the machine and quitting.

It's true. The ice employees have not been getting paid. And the bonus is a joke with so many impossible strings attached.

Are you under the impression he's paying them out of his own pocket

Fear is definitely a reason they love to drive 3-ton trucks to rugged wild places like the office and McDonald's. I have heard my fair share of rednecks call ANY small or normal sized car a "death trap" or "tin can," or comment something like "I'd hate to have somebody crash into me in that thing!"

"Winning" in a crash is a big unspoken feature that drives vehicle choice for a lot of paranoid/scared iamverybadass turds. Around me it's a pretty varied mix of trucks, truck-based SUV barges, and luxury SUVs.

Hell yeah I also recently finished the Dawn of Everything and it really blew my mind. Highly seconding it.

Graeber is fantastic. Loved "Debt: the First 5000 years"

Are you not aware of the teachers union in the US?

In developed countries

This is the US.

That may be true to an extent, but pay has stagnated more and more each year.

Adjusted for inflation, a teacher's salary in 1969 was well over $77,000. Today is at $60,000, with purchasing power being substantially lower.

They just tend to dial it up to 11.

, Pray they don't come for you when the curtain falls.

i'd rather not risk being sent somewhere and having the guy next to me shoot and kill innocent people. that kind of shit would scar me for life

Should've called it a gratuity instead of a signing bonus. Then it wouldn't have any taxes.

Yeah. The whole statement isn't as accurate as they make it sound. Those bonuses aren't going out to hardly anyone. And only a few would even qualify for that salary.

Even the basic salary is reported as not being paid as expected.

I agree with the overall idea behind this post. More money for teachers less money for the gestapo.

But let's not misuse stats to try and make a point.

Oopsie. Teacher needs to remember that populous & populace are two very different words 🤭

That I had to scroll this far down to see this is rather telling of the state of education.

Why?

Not to mention the unmentioned difference between number of teachers and number of ICE goons making that salary.

I’m all for teachers making more money. I think pay should be based on need and workload. Teachers rank high in both.

But the argument above is not great argument. It uses something I hate, something I agree with, and makes a false equivalency argument out of both. As inclined as I am to agree, the argument could be a lot better

What are you trying to say? Public school teacher's salaries are funded federally. Also, the cost of the Iran War alone could help pay teachers more. Instead trump's goon squad is cutting education and making it more christian.

The truth is that it depends on whether the teacher is working for a private or a public school. If he or she belongs to a public school, the money he receives comes from the government, related and concerned government agencies, and the taxes of the people of the United States. Same goes for all the maintenance crew, cafeteria servants, guards, and all the staff of the school. On the other hand, teachers who work for a private school get their salary from the school itself. The money being paid to them comes from the students

https://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/funding/

My state allows you to unenroll your student and take the money towards you home schooling, or charter schools, or other education which is a whole quagmire I'm not gonna get into

But it's fucking mind blowing

They get $10,000/student/year and they're cramming 32 students into a classroom.

$320,000 and the teacher makes $45,000 of it

Where the fuck is the rest of it going?

We're getting subpar education - 39% below grade level in reading. 36% in maths. But I would be the bad guy if I choose to take this and "continue the cycle of destroying public education".

that's how people disappear in the desert.

no thanks.

That's right! A single typo invalidates the entire point they were trying to make. Great job! :D

Either that or it was a typo

Autocorrect is a bitch sometimes

I'm 70% sure this is a joke getting downvoted because sarcasm is hard, but regardless of whether this is a joke or not this is hilarious

Gym teachers exist.

Hopefully rightwingers aren't literate enough to notice.

It was a pop quiz. Congrats you passed! Bad news because of your poor attitude you will have to report to the principals office

That's why we should pay them more....then attractive candidates are found and the dummies who use they instead of they're, well there done!

Edit: I'm a tertiary dumbass

Some peoples priorities encompass more than money.

That doesn't mean money wouldn't make their life better or their job easier. You could also hire more teachers at the same salary. Student/teacher ratios are also part of the problem.

You're talking about someone with a masters that is responsible for the upbringing of the next generation V's a thug.

What an absolutely shit, capitalist boot licking take.

Maybe she just wants the same pay as someone who arrests brown people.

I don’t know if you’ve been asleep for the past 20 years, but in a lot of places, public school teachers are quitting. And they’re being replaced with unqualified people who are pretty much babysitters instead of instructors.

Dude, you're on lemmy. Libertarians get shot here.

I think the point here was misunderstood.

The point is, capitalism makes workplaces pay their workers just enough so they don't leave. This is basic supply and demand, as always. No one cares for the people or the future for that matter.

Hiring people for a people-torturing machine is harder, because some people still have moral compass, and also care for their own safety. ICE jobs, while not requiring such an extensive education, are morally wrong, brutal, and dangerous, which all reduce worker supply and raise the pay.

Besides, keeping schools understaffed does not immediately affect the economy in a big way, so they may keep it as the next generation's problem. Keeping ICE understaffed is, in the eyes of the government, an immediate threat. You don't want to keep an organized group of guys with guns unhappy, and you need to project the dedication in your (inhumane) ways to gain legitimacy to keep being elected (until you completely dismantle democracy).

And when the government needs something - it will get it, screwing everyone else.